DESCRIPTION OF THE HARBOUR OF CHEQUETAN, AND OF THE ADJACENT COAST AND
COUNTRY
The harbour of Chequetan, which we here propose to describe, lies in
the latitude of 17° 36' north, and is about thirty leagues to the
westward of Acapulco. It is easy to be discovered by any ship that
will keep well in with the land, especially by such as range down the
coast from Acapulco, and will attend to the following particulars.
There is a beach of sand, which extends eighteen leagues from the
harbour of Acapulco to the westward, against which the sea breaks so
violently that with our boats it would be impossible to land on any
part of it, but yet the ground is so clean that during the fair season
ships may anchor in great safety at the distance of a mile or two from
the shore. The land adjacent to this beach is generally low, full of
villages, and planted with a great number of trees, and on the tops of
some small eminencies there are several lookout towers, so that the
face of the country affords a very agreeable prospect: for the
cultivated part, which is the part here described, extends some leagues
back from the shore, where it seems to be bounded by a chain of
mountains which stretch to a considerable distance on either side of
Acapulco. It is a most remarkable particularity that in this whole
extent, containing in appearance the most populous and best planted
district of the whole coast, there should be neither canoes, boats, nor
any other embarkations, either for fishing, coasting, or for pleasure.
This cannot be imputed to the difficulty of landing, because in many
parts of Africa and Asia, where the same inconvenience occurs, the
inhabitants have provided against it by vessels of a peculiar fabric.
I therefore conceive that the government, to prevent smuggling, have
prohibited the use of all kinds of small craft in that district.
The beach here described is the surest guide to those who {240} are
desirous of finding the harbour of Chequetan, for five miles to the
westward of the extremity of this beach there appears a hummock, which
at first makes like an island, and is in shape not very unlike the hill
of Petaplan, hereafter mentioned, though much smaller. Three miles to
the westward of this hummock is a white rock near the shore which
cannot easily be passed by unobserved. It is about two cables'-length
from the land, and lies in a large bay, about nine leagues over. The
west point of this bay is the hill of Petaplan, with the view of the
islands of Quicara and Quibo. This hill of Petaplan, like the
forementioned hummock, may be at first mistaken for an island, though
it be in reality a peninsula, which is joined to the continent by a low
and narrow isthmus, covered over with shrubs and small trees. The bay
of Seguataneio extends from this hill a great way to the westward, and
it appears by a plan of the bay of Petaplan, which is part of that of
Seguataneio, that at a small distance from the hill, and opposite to
the entrance of the bay, there is an assemblage of rocks which are
white from the excrements of boobies and tropical birds. Four of these
rocks are high and large, and together with several smaller ones, are,
by the help of a little imagination, pretended to resemble the form of
a cross, and are called the White Friars. These rocks, as appears by
the plan, bear W. by N. from Petaplan, and about seven miles to the
westward of them lies the harbour of Chequetan, which is still more
minutely distinguished by a large and single rock that rises out of the
water a mile and an half distant from the entrance, and bears S.½W.
from the middle of it. To these directions I must add that the coast
is no ways to be dreaded between the middle of October and the
beginning of May, nor is there then any danger from the winds, though
in the remaining part of the year there are frequent and violent
tornadoes, heavy rains, and hard gales in all directions of the compass.
Such are the infallible marks by which the harbour of Chequetan may be
known to those who keep well in with the land. But as to those who
keep at any considerable distance from the coast, there is no other
method to be taken for finding the place than that of making it by the
latitude, for there are so many ranges of mountains rising one upon the
back of another within land, that no drawings of the appearance of the
coast can be at all depended on when off {241} at sea, every little
change of distance or variation of position bringing new mountains in
view, and producing an infinity of different prospects, which render
all attempts of delineating the aspect of the coast impossible.
Having discussed the methods of discovering the harbour of Chequetan,
it is time to describe the harbour itself. Its entrance is but about
half a mile broad; the two points which form it, and which are faced
with rocks that are almost perpendicular, bear from each other S.E. and
N.W. The harbour is invironed on all sides, except to the westward,
with high mountains overspread with trees. The passage into it is very
safe on either side of the rock that lies off the mouth of it, though
we, both in coming in and going out, left it to the eastward. The
ground without the harbour is gravel mixed with stones, but within it
is a soft mud: and it must be remembered that in coming to an anchor a
good allowance should be made for a large swell, which frequently
causes a great send of the sea, as likewise for the ebbing and flowing
of the tide, which we observed to be about five feet, and that it set
nearly E. and W.
The watering-place is situated in that part of the harbour where there
is fresh water. This, during the whole time of our stay, had the
appearance of a large standing lake, without any visible outlet into
the sea, from which it is separated by a part of the strand. The
origin of this lake is a spring that bubbles out of the ground near
half a mile within the country. We found the water a little brackish,
but more considerably so towards the seaside; for the nearer we
advanced towards the spring-head the softer and fresher it proved.
This laid us under a necessity of filling all our casks from the
furthest part of the lake, and occasioned us some trouble; and would
have proved still more difficult had it not been for our particular
management, which, on account of the conveniency of it, deserves to be
recommended to all who shall hereafter water at this place. Our method
consisted in making use of canoes which drew but little water; for,
loading them with a number of small casks, they easily got up the lake
to the spring-head, and the small casks being there filled, were in the
same manner transported back again to the beach, where some of our
hands always attended to start them into other casks of a larger size.
Though this lake, during our continuance there, appeared {242} to have
no outlet into the sea, yet there is reason to suppose that in the
rainy season it overflows the strand, and communicates with the ocean;
for Dampier, who was formerly here, speaks of it as a large river.
Indeed it is necessary that a vast body of water should be amassed
before the lake can rise high enough to overflow the strand, since the
neighbouring lands are so low that great part of them must be covered
with water before it can run out over the beach.
As the country hereabouts, particularly the tract of coast contiguous
to Acapulco, appeared to be well peopled and cultivated, we hoped to
have easily procured from thence some fresh provisions and other
refreshments which we now stood greatly in need of. To facilitate
these views, the commodore, the morning after we came to an anchor,
ordered a party of forty men, well armed, to march into the country,
and to endeavour to discover some town or village, where they were to
attempt to set on foot a correspondence with the inhabitants; for when
we had once begun this intercourse, we doubted not but that, by proper
presents, we should allure them to bring down to us whatever fruits or
fresh provisions were in their power, as our prizes abounded in various
kinds of coarse merchandize, which were of little consequence to us,
though to them they would be extremely valuable. Our people were
directed on this occasion to proceed with the greatest circumspection,
and to make as little ostentation of hostility as possible; for we were
sensible we could find no wealth in these parts worth our notice, and
what necessaries we really wanted, we expected would be better and more
abundantly supplied by an open amicable traffic than by violence and
force of arms. But this endeavour of opening a commerce with the
inhabitants proved ineffectual; for towards evening, the party which
had been ordered to march into the country returned greatly fatigued by
their unusual exercise, and some of them so far spent that they had
fainted on the road, and were obliged to be brought back upon the
shoulders of their companions. They had penetrated, as they conceived,
about ten miles into the country, along a beaten track, where they
often saw the fresh dung of horses or mules. When they had got near
five miles from the harbour, the road divided between the mountains
into two branches, one running to the east and the other to the west.
On deliberation concerning the course they should take, it {243} was
agreed to continue their march along the eastern road: this when they
had followed it for some time led them at once into a large plain or
savannah, on one side of which they discovered a centinel on horseback
with a pistol in his hand. It was supposed that when they first saw
him he was asleep; but his horse, startled at the glittering of their
arms, and turning round suddenly, ran off with his master, who, though
he was very near being unhorsed in the surprize, yet recovered his
seat, and escaped with the loss only of his hat and his pistol, which
he dropped on the ground. Our people pursued him in hopes of
discovering the village or habitation which he would retreat to; but as
he had the advantage of being on horseback, they soon lost sight of
him. Notwithstanding his escape, they were unwilling to come back
without making some discovery, and therefore still followed the track
they were in, till the heat of the day increasing, and finding no water
to quench their thirst, they were first obliged to halt, and then
resolved to return; for as they saw no signs of plantations or
cultivated land, they had no reason to believe that there was any
village or settlement near them. However, to leave no means untried of
procuring some intercourse with the people, the officers stuck up
several poles in the road, to which were affixed declarations written
in Spanish, encouraging the inhabitants to come down to the harbour to
traffic with us, giving them the strongest assurances of a kind
reception, and faithful payment for any provisions they should bring
us. This was doubtless a very prudent measure, yet it produced no
effect; for we never saw any of them during the whole time of our
continuance at this port of Chequetan. Indeed it were to have been
wished that our men, upon the division of the path, had taken the
western road instead of the eastern; for then they would soon have been
led to a village or town, which some Spanish manuscripts mention as
being in the neighbourhood of this port, and which we afterwards learnt
was not above two miles from that turning.
And on this occasion I cannot avoid mentioning another adventure which
happened to some of our people in the bay of Petaplan, as it may
greatly assist the reader in forming a just idea of the temper and
resolution of the inhabitants of this part of the world. Some time
after our arrival at Chequetan, Lieutenant Brett was sent by the
commodore, {244} with two of our boats under his command, to examine
the coast to the eastward, particularly to make observations on the bay
and watering-place of Petaplan. As Mr. Brett with one of the boats was
preparing to go on shore towards the hill of Petaplan, he accidentally
looking across the bay, perceived on the opposite strand three small
squadrons of horse parading upon the beach, and seeming to advance
towards the place where he proposed to land. On sight of this he
immediately put off the boat, though he had but sixteen men with him,
and stood over the bay towards them: and he soon came near enough to
perceive that they were mounted on very sightly horses, and were armed
with carbines and lances. On seeing him make towards them, they formed
upon the beach, and seemed resolved to dispute his landing, firing
several distant shot at him as he drew near, till at last the boat
being arrived within a reasonable distance of the most advanced
squadron, Mr. Brett ordered his people to fire, upon which this
resolute cavalry instantly ran with great confusion into the wood
through a small opening. In this precipitate flight one of their
horses fell down and threw his rider; but whether he was wounded or not
we could not discern, for both man and horse soon got up again, and
followed the rest into the wood. In the meantime the other two
squadrons were calm spectators of the rout of their comrades, for they
were drawn up at a great distance behind, out of the reach of our shot,
having halted on our first approach, and never advancing a step
afterwards. It was doubtless fortunate for our people that the enemy
acted with so little prudence, and exerted so little spirit, since had
they concealed themselves till our men had landed, it is scarcely
possible but all the boat's crew must have fallen into their hands, as
the Spaniards were not much short of two hundred, and the whole number
with Mr. Brett only amounted to sixteen. However, the discovery of so
considerable a force collected in this bay of Petaplan obliged us
constantly to keep a boat or two before it: for we were apprehensive
that the cutter, which we had left to cruise off Acapulco, might on her
return be surprized by the enemy, if she did not receive timely
information of her danger. But now to proceed with the account of the
harbour of Chequetan.
After our unsuccessful attempt to engage the people of {245} the
country to furnish us with the necessaries we wanted, we desisted from
any more endeavours of the same nature, and were obliged to be
contented with what we could procure for ourselves in the neighbourhood
of the port. We caught fish here in tolerable quantities, especially
when the smoothness of the water permitted us to hale the seyne.
Amongst the rest, we got cavallies, breams, mullets, soles,
fiddle-fish, sea-eggs, and lobsters: and we here, and in no other
place, met with that extraordinary fish called the torpedo, or
numbing-fish, which is in shape very like the fiddle-fish, and is not
to be known from it but by a brown circular spot about the bigness of a
crown piece near the centre of its back. Perhaps its figure will be
better understood when I say it is a flat fish much resembling the
thorn-back. This fish, the torpedo, is indeed of a most singular
nature, productive of the strangest effects on the human body: for
whoever handles it, or happens even to set his foot upon it, is
presently seized with a numbness all over him, but which is more
distinguishable in that limb which was in immediate contact with it.
The same effect too will be in some degree produced by touching the
fish with anything held in the hand, since I myself had a considerable
degree of numbness conveyed to my right arm, through a walking cane,
which I rested on the body of the fish for a short time only; and I
make no doubt but I should have been much more sensibly affected had
not the fish been near expiring when I made the experiment, as it is
observable that this influence acts with most vigour upon the fish's
being first taken out of the water, and entirely ceases as soon as it
is dead, so that it may be then handled, or even eaten, without any
inconvenience. I shall only add, that the numbness of my arm upon this
occasion did not go off on a sudden, as the accounts of some
naturalists gave me reason to expect, but diminished gradually, so that
I had some sensation of it remaining till the next day.
To the account given of the fish we met with here I must add, that
though turtle now grew scarce, and we found none in this harbour of
Chequetan, yet our boats, which were stationed off Petaplan, often
supplied us therewith; and though this was a food that we had been long
as it were confined to (since it was the only fresh provisions which we
had tasted during near six months), yet we were far from {246} being
cloyed with it, or from finding that the relish we had for it at all
diminished.
The animals we met with on shore were principally guanos, with which
the country abounds, and which are by some reckoned delicious food. We
saw no beast of prey here, except we should esteem that amphibious
animal, the alligator, as such, several of which our people discovered,
but none of them very large. However, we were satisfied that there
were great numbers of tygers in the woods, though none of them came in
sight, for we every morning found the beach near the watering-place
imprinted very thick with their footsteps: but we never apprehended any
mischief from them, since they are by no means so fierce as the Asiatic
or African tyger, and are rarely, if ever, known to attack mankind.
Birds were here in sufficient plenty; for we had abundance of pheasants
of different kinds, some of them of an uncommon size, but they were all
very dry and tasteless eating. And besides these we had a variety of
smaller birds, particularly parrots, which we often killed for food.
The fruits and vegetable refreshments at this place were neither
plentiful nor of the best kinds. There were, it is true, a few bushes
scattered about the woods, which supplied us with limes, but we
scarcely could procure enough for our present use: and these, with a
small plum of an agreeable acid, called in Jamaica the hog-plum,
together with another fruit called a papah, were the only fruits to be
found in the woods. Nor is there any other useful vegetable here worth
mentioning, except brook lime. This indeed grew in great quantities
near the fresh-water banks; and as it was esteemed an antiscorbutic, we
fed upon it frequently, though its extreme bitterness made it very
unpalatable.
These are the articles most worthy of notice in this harbour of
Chequetan. I shall only mention a particular of the coast lying to the
westward of it, that to the eastward having been already described. As
Mr. Anson was always attentive to whatever might be of consequence to
those who might frequent these seas hereafter, and as we had observed
that there was a double land to the westward of Chequetan, which
stretched out to a considerable distance, with a kind of opening that
appeared not unlike the inlet to some harbour, the commodore, soon
after we came to an anchor, sent a boat to discover it more accurately,
and it was found on a {247} nearer examination that the two hills which
formed the double land were joined together by a valley, and that there
was no harbour nor shelter between them.
By all that hath been said it will appear that the conveniences of this
port of Chequetan, particularly in the articles of refreshment, are not
altogether such as might be desired: but yet, upon the whole, it must
be owned to be a place of considerable consequence, and that the
knowledge of it may be of great import to future cruisers, for except
Acapulco, which is in the hands of the enemy, it is the only secure
harbour in a vast extent of coast. It lies at a proper distance from
Acapulco for the convenience of such ships as may have any designs on
the Manila galeon; and it is a place where wood and water may be
procured with great security in despight of the efforts of the
inhabitants of the adjacent district: for there is but one narrow path
which leads through the woods into the country, and this is easily to
be secured by a very small party against all the strength the Spaniards
in that neighbourhood can muster. After this account of Chequetan, and
the coast contiguous to it, we now return to the recital of our own
proceedings.
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